Tuesday, 28 May 2013

Review: Micro Arts Studio Chaos Elipse base (120mm)

Chaos. The word conjures up images of utter madness, inconsistency, danger and the unusual. Micro Arts Studio has created this image in physical form, with its "chaos" range of base. Today, I'm looking at their 120mm 'Ellipse' base.

The base is stunningly detailed, there is a lot going on with this base. Jagged rocks poke out of the earth, held down by daemonic chains. Many are covered in chaotic runes etched into the surface. The texture is also quite nice, a sort of mixed-sand style. This will save work later on. Some of the details are a bit chunky, but I'm nit-picking here. It also hasn't considered people who intend to use it as a flying base, though this has been in production since before flyer's became a big thing very recently. You will need to drill out a hole for a stand or flatten an area (if using the GW clear stand) for sturdy purchase.

The only major issues were on the
underside of the base.

On the quality side, very little is wrong with the product. The details are fairly crisp, nothing has broke off, and there were no mould lines. The resin does feel a bit brittle (during cleanup). There are air bubbles, but thankfully they are mostly underneath the base, so you wont see them.

I did notice one major flaw when comparing it with a standard GW 120mm oval base: it's NOT quite 120mm. It might be due to shrinkage during the casting process, but the Maxmini base has ended up about 4mm too narrow and too short compared the the standard base. This might be a problem for those who enter strict competitions, but generally for gamers this shouldn't be an issue. If you need to, you could simply glue this base on top of the standard one, and have the benefits of legality and style.

This is a very nice base, and for a good price (£10 from Putrid Painting, the cheapest supplier I know of) its very few flaws are overshadowed by its style, and scores a solid 8.5. To conclude, here is my list of main points: